Sika, one of the market leaders in adhesive & sealant technology for the bus manufacturing industry, showcased its entire range of bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing and protecting products at the fair.
In an exclusive interaction with Mr. Pankaj Sharma, National Business Development Head – Transportation and Marine, Sika India, we understood Sika India’s focus on technologies that enhance passenger safety & comfort, especially with the OEMs’ bid for electrification of buses.
He said: “At Busworld, we are focusing on products for electric buses. We are showcasing products that will upgrade the technological requirements with respect to electric buses under the key applications of bonding and sealing.”
Speaking about low-density products which will reduce the overall weight of the bus and will increase the payload, Mr. Sharma observed: “We have excellent range of products to focus on fire norms, as globally fire is the biggest risk and concern for electric buses.”
Product range for e-buses
Sika is known as an innovator and technology pioneer in its core field of bonding, sealing, dampening & reinforcing. Sika’s production facilities are spread across 200 manufacturing locations worldwide in 100 countries.
“For e-vehicles, fire protection is really vital and hence to achieve required passenger evacuation time, isolation of Li-ion batteries from other assemblies is very important. Referring several fire propagation tests conducted in buses, we see that all tests indicate that under severe fire conditions, the average available time for successful evacuation of passengers is approximately 3 to 5 minutes.” said Mr Sharma.
“However, under real-time experiments, it has been observed that the temperature profile of a burning bus reaches more than 850 degree centigrade within the first 60 seconds of the fire, which gives very less time for passengers to evacuate the bus. In such a situation, all the products used in the bus, including adhesives and sealants, should be fire retardant. Sika has introduced a fire-retardant range of adhesives and sealants which will enhance the safety of the passengers”, disclosed Mr. Sharma.
With India eyeing electrification of commercial vehicles, safety of buses should be of paramount concern. Mr. Sharma believes India should look at global fire standards and fire suppression systems for enhancing the fire safety of our buses.
“Fire suppression systems should be a standard feature in all the buses and should not be an additional safety option. India needs to have much more stricter regulations in line with global safety standards; this will ensure that only standard quality material will be used while building the bus and the safety of passengers will not be compromised”, he asserted.
He added: “Bus manufacturers are now also using special quality GRP Sheets for the roof that are bonded using Sika’s proven adhesive technology which gives corrosion protection, as practically there is no riveting or welding on the roof assembly while it also eliminates local heat generation. For e-vehicles, we also have various other solutions like potting & encapsulation of e-motor along with battery box compartment, fire protection intumescent coating, and other bonding and sealing solutions.”
Sika India, which has substantial share of business in the organized bus manufacturing segment, foresees good growth for its business in the next two years owing to various policy changes such as vehicle scrappage policy, Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles (FAME) and BS-VI implementation that is expected to lead to pre-buying of BS-IV vehicles.